Buskers in Naples
Naples loves to have music – classical music, world music, new music, Neapolitan songs – music from palazzo to piazza, music that breaks your heart and throws you up to the sky all at once.
Take a stroll down Via Toledo any day of the week and the chances are that somebody somewhere will play you a tune and they’ll play it well.
The lone bright light in the left third of the picture is the Mt Vesuvius Observatory. It is minutes before the end of 2014.
It was cold and seconds off midnight. A sub-zero wind fleeced coats, squeezed eyeballs and jumped camera shots into shaky blurs. Plenty of reason to go indoors but none of us did.
The view from our hill of steeply barked pines was incredible. We could see right across the night to the lights on the opposite shore of this mythical bay.
We stamped frozen feet as we stood suspended between geography, history, and two calendar years – Vesuvius to our front, Roman remains beneath and behind us, and Naples about to mark the annual switch.
Another year gone – another year of life disappearing over the horizon with all it hazards and chances.
A thousand thanks to everyone who looked in on The Phraser over the year. Your company and your feedback make The Phraser.
I would also like to mention especially, those who have allowed me over the past year to interview them or feature their work. It is such a privilege to have the chance to profile the parts of life that have caught my eye.
Here are a few links to some of the 2014 Phraser ‘portraits’:
The Phraser 